Courting a Caster
(The earlier battle)
(Sasaku)
My last planned attack, a spread of maxed-out velocity tip-Reinforced spears from the Emiya estate didn't work. I estimate only five of the seven spears shot actually hit, but four of those were glancing at best. Even if the fifth did penetrate the presumably-thinner backplate of Gilgamesh's armor, it wouldn't suffice to take down a Servant.
But his tactics on the defense revealed to me something that he had discovered; the spears can't phase through Noble Phantasms, and probably Servants as well. That means it might be possible to actually strike with high-velocity shots right into gaps, provided I was close enough to allow the spears to appear very close to him.
It's a calculated risk, but if I pull a descent homewards and he follows, sharply reversing into him would result in a very high relative velocity. Depending on his speed, it may be impossible for him to get a shot at me, especially if I pass very close to him with high angular momentum as seen from his inertial frame.
I've been running at about one-hundred-five percent of baseline cognitive cycling speed, but should crank it as high as safely possible for the actual pass, given that I only have one try and seven missiles in a volley to use. About fifteen seconds at one-hundred-fifty should be doable.
We're falling at a steady rate, and I pre-load the initial two volleys of spears. The first are regular spears, the second my last set of seven tip-Reinforced ones. Time to bite the bullet and do this.
Simple acceleration up to around the speed of an airplane is relatively mundane and therefore cheap in terms of magical energy costs, but a very high rate of acceleration comes with heightened costs. I want to change the direction of my velocity by nearly 180 degrees, which is simple if it was a ball bouncing off a wall. But there's no wall, so I'll have to dump the momentum difference into the air around me, which isn't all that much.
A moment later the two of us are rocketing towards one another on a near-collision course. I can practically see the surprise on his face as a small gesture sends the first flight of spears ahead of me to give him something to block.
About one second to go. A set of golden daggers appears and blocks the spears. I can feel some sort of energy burning off as the weapons are forced into reality by the Noble Phantasms. Half a second.
A series of golden ripples open up to reveal emerging spearpoints. Not an ideal choice for an exchange during a fast pass, especially since I now know it is possible to pull out spears at speed to redirect them even at close range.
I don't have an ideal way to target the gaps in his back, but the standard areas should do; armpit, back of the knees, perhaps the inner thigh area. Three sets of spears go flying.
It's at about when a few pairs of spears make contact with one another that I notice that Gilgamesh isn't using spears, but some sort of chain with spearheads at the ends. Though I can knock the point off course, the momentum of the chain behind it keeps that mass moving straight, as it isn't a rigid shaft. Oh crap.
I think I hear him start in surprise as at least one point slides home, but it's impossible to avoid crashing directly into the chains now forming a net all around the two of us.
As the spearpoints I first knocked aside flick around about the time their trailing chains catch me, I have about a quarter of a second to realize that they are circling back in a trajectory that will send them ripping through me. Probably because Gilgamesh had expected me to try and evade, which I hadn't due to not realizing he had employed a chain-type weapon.
This is probably going to hurt.
l
(About three minutes later)
(Gilgamesh)
Acceleration burn completed smoothly. After the initial surprise at Kirei's ridiculous last act had worn off, I noted with a hint of smugness that the Grail apparently couldn't actually apply six Command Spells at once, meaning I only had to hold off only the effect of the first two. Or perhaps it was a distance issue.
A lot of things had gone wrong, but quite a lot had worked out just as well, or better, than expected in handling the Grail and War situations. The only real oddity was that I couldn't figure out who the warning about 'Emiya's Saber' was actually about. Even though it was one of the critical bits of information, too. With Kirei dead, there wasn't much time even if the initial stages of Grail manifestation wouldn't lead to more outspill of whatever corruption remained within the vessel.
The fact that Caster didn't just keep the other Servant around her made avoiding him much easier. Not that Sasaki Kojirou should pose much of a threat, but one should never give in to overconfidence, it being slow and insidious cause of embarrassing turnaround defeats.
Speaking of Caster...
Pulling her out of the Gate isn't any harder than putting her in, but the real danger is... we're far enough out, Kirei's gambit can't force my hand now. I nodded to myself before frowning at the sight of the cut-up girl, seemingly only a couple years older than me, who the Gate dumped in a crumpled heap at my feet. The marks of the links of a chain were still visible on a few areas. I would have liked to strangle Kotomine myself for making me do just that much.
'Are you alive?" I ask while getting up from the throne-like chair. I can control Vimana well enough that there's no turbulence to speak of at cruising speed.
"Yes," she replies simply while trying to get to her feet, before giving up due to the damage on her left side, specifically the hip joint. "I can fix it..." Sasaku muttered, apparently undisturbed by the blood that was evaporating into green-and-gold specks around her.
"By the way, you have something else to wear, I hope."
She nodded, more focused for the moment on repairing her body than decency.
Now that I can actually see it properly, it's possible to confirm that the particular white dress she has changed into is the same one Artoria wore during the previous Grail War. Probably because it was the smallest in Irisviel's wardrobe, was thus chosen and resized for Artoria, which in turn made it a natural choice when Emiya was looking for something his Caster could wear.
Hmm. Though she must have resized it, since on Artoria who is similar in build, it looked far looser. Indeed on Lancer my first impression was that it was like Enkidu's very loose clothing. Though this was equally likely due to not having really met him 'yet' in my lifetime.
Sasaku was looking around the open deck of the ship, checking that the previous mess had been cleaned up. Which it had, or else evaporated cleanly away. Why don't you just sit down,"I suggested, doing so myself. Though there might have been enough room on the only seat available, that would be rather inconveniently tight, so instead I moved to one side and tapped the arm on the other side, which she perched on after catching on to my signal.
"I suppose I shan't be making it to school on Monday." Caster comments idly into the air rushing by.
Really, you're going with that? Well then... "You're starting in the middle of the semester, does it matter?" I reply, as though it's the most natural topic to converse on. She simply shrugs, waiting for my actual response to her opening move.
No, I'm going to run with this ridiculous line. There's time and it would be an unexpected counter. "Though I wouldn't mind seeing you wear a uniform again, don't you think the other one would suit you better?"
"What." She paused for a moment. "Like I could stand a day going to school with literal children. Which I highly doubt you did the last few years." It took me a moment to realize that she wasn't, like I was, thinking of the school's summer uniform, but rather the one of its elementary division.
"Of course not. It's just that for some reason that one uses a miniskirt."
Sasaku freezes for a fraction of a second before cautiously responding with, "Well they probably worried about tripping if it's a longer garment. Besides, no one would think of children lik-" she abruptly stops.
It should be far enough now. I turn to look off in the direction of Fuyuki, confirming my hunch before setting Vimana down in a small clearing. I get off, followed by Caster after about a moment as the gleaming ship then disappears back into the Gate.
"I actually have both of them stored in the Armory," she said somewhat reluctantly while fussing with her dress.
Uh. Huh. I was confused by her volunteering that before it occurred to me that she might have thought I already knew that and was just testing her. Though that isn't possible, since that space is internal to her so I can't see it.
This was a pointless derail anyway. "We're going to have to walk back, since I used up most of the magical energy getting out here," I announce. "But it probably isn't a good idea to try Spirit Form this far from Fuyuki."
"By the way, what's your actual name? Not the Spirit Origin True Name, but whatever people call you at home." I offered, seemly as small talk, but more because there was something interesting but subtle going on there.
"Sasaku."
"Your people don't use family names?" I tried for a tone of idle curiosity, though this was actually my real interest in the topic,
"Does yours? We have tribal divisions, but when there's only twelve and you're a trillion strong it's fairly pointless. We default to the 'son of, daughter of' as that is what of us in the initial generation used. Double that if necessary, otherwise you can just go to ID codes."
"I see. So you're...?"
"I'm in Generation Zero who weren't born in the regular way." She paused for a moment. "But no one really notices because because before generation one, it was the same for literally everyone who was alive, and currently it's very unique, so to speak, because that's only 1 in 10000 who are like that."
Ok, so she's pretty confused about that, great... Though the sparse background information pulled up by my Noble Phantasm still only names her as 'Sasaku,' the fact that at some point someone but who changed her True Name was very suspicious, since it had to be deliberate. It's different from the case of 'Kuro von Einzbern' who is named differently in her background information, but never had her True Name change.
"You did summon Sasaki Kojirou, didn't you?"
"Yes, though the similarity in names had nothing to do with it, if that's what you're wondering. Or maybe it did, he's a rather odd existence."
"Be careful of him, that man has an Evil alignment," I shrug, since that's not the real cause for concern. After all, Medusa has a Good alignment despite turning into, well a small Gorgon apparently. In fact I should show some appreciation for her being the one most likely to have removed some of the Grail corruption taint from Sakura. One gets the feeling that left unchecked, that might have turned into a major disaster.
"I suppose," Sasaku takes the warning equally lightly. "He isn't actually Sasaki Kojirou, if that man even existed rather than just a legend. So I have no idea if that would affect him."
"It might, though indirectly. If the Grail decided to add a person to the legend to create a Servant, it would choose someone as close as possible, so he is closer than anyone, due to the Grail being able to access all times and parallel worlds."
"Oh..." that minor detail seems to have caught her attention. "So the Grail is able to copy someone dead in our time since they are always 'current' to it."
"I suppose," I repeat her earlier words while thinking. "Since the man you have clearly doesn't exist in the Throne of Heroes, otherwise he would have been summoned as himself, not Sasaki Kojirou."
"Hmm." We fall silent.
"You know," I comment while pushing another branch out of the way. "Rather than tramping through brush like this, it would be easier to travel alone the road." I find the (Cloth of Concealment) and pull it out of the Gate before demonstrating its function by winding a section around my arm.
"Hmm," she commented, looking at what would appear to her as empty space. "Impressive, I assume it blocks scrying as well as visual? But it shows up clearly as a void anomaly on field-based detection protocols."
"It also doesn't block sound, as you can tell," I reply while removing it. "Still, it will keep anyone from noticing us and also prevent alarming any magi living around here. Or monks or priests, for that matter. Servants have a massive magical energy presence." Sasaku simply nodded, holding out her right arm after seeing how I had used the Noble Phantasm.
"I'd like you to change first," I said, watching for her response. Somewhat disappointingly she didn't so much as bat an eyelid, simply wordlessly started shimmering as though entering Spirit Form, but with a light green tinge, before the visual effect ceased and she was wearing the uniform I had in mind. Which did fit decently.
Actually, it would have been more unexpected if I hadn't done that, huh? Seeing Caster just passively watch me look her up and down, somehow it feels like this exchange was a loss of sorts. Oh well. I motion for her to turn around a bit.
"Wasn't there a hat?" I mutter before realizing that checking the actual garments would reveal if one was part of the set. "Rin didn't bring one over," Sasaku explained. "Probably because the uniform she wears now is similar but doesn't have one."
"Right..." I throw a loop of the sash-like Cloth over her arm and do the same for myself. "Let's go."
I have a couple of days, both to get back at a steady pace, but also before (Independent Action) and my current energy reserves run out. Let's see, first I should probably get at what she knows about the Grail and see what she has planned, then go from there. For example...
"How were you planning to handle the energy costs of four Servants? Or perhaps you didn't expect to have that problem?"
"In detail, or just overall?"
l
(Back at the Emiya house)
"One moment," Saber interrupted the ongoing discussion about retrieving items from the Einzbern castle. "Your hand," he said simply to Shirou, who glanced at it and froze..
"What is it?" Rider asked, being at the wrong angle to see what had caused him concern, until the Master turned his hand around to show the two now clearly red markings on his remaining Command Seals. "That-!" Kuro jumped to feet, agitated. 'I thought you said he wouldn't harm her."
"Calm down," the first Servant said, indeed sounding calm himself. "It could be something else..?" He trailed off as Sakura made to speak.
"It's probably a fail-safe," she said slowly as though talking to herself. "Practically speaking she wanted it to always transfer when it should, even if it might also do so at other times."
"Hm. She didn't mention that to me, but it would be like her," Saber shrugged, finding it a reasonable explanation.
"I doubt you would have been interested in listening though," Rin said with a hint of a relieved chuckle.
"I do know that she didn't simply do it earlier to avoid running magical energy through Shirou," he replied in a serious tone. "Because neither of us can really control the flow the way she could as an intermediate."
"Shirou can just take it from the Realm," Sakura said, without much concern. At least until said Master added, "I can't."
"... well I can." An awkward moment of silence followed. "Anyway you have full reserves and don't use energy-intensive Noble Phantasms so it won't even be a worry until a few days or so."
"Well I think everything's arranged for tonight," Medusa said, wrapping up the earlier discussion. "Saber and Kuro will take Illya to the castle, since her help can carry anything needed. The Masters should go back to sleep, especially since... you have school in about six hours."
"Really," Rin groaned. "I guess it is safe enough."